Indonesia’s Hope is in Her People

article for a Singapore publication (not for public distribution prior to publication)

 

Indonesia’s Hope is in Her People

 

By Wimar Witoelar

 

On the sidewalk in front of Scotts Center, arrows point in the direction of faraway places. Once I walked by with a young friend, who pointed to one marked ‘Indonesia’ and asked : “Is that the right direction?”  Well, I said, the arrow could point in any direction except North. Whichever way you go from Singapore, you would probably find some part of Indonesian soil. 

One does not always feel the sense here of being surrounded by Indonesia. In a way that is good, considering the image of that country being down in the dumps. High on the list of the most corrupt nations, with an economy near collapse and a society torn by violence and now infested with Al Qaeda terrorists, many Singaporeans would prefer to shut their eyes and wish this giant nation away like a bad dream.

The part that is totally true about that bad dream is the fact the Indonesia is very big. That is its main problem.  I used to joke that Indonesia would be as orderly as Singapore if you picked the 4 million most disciplined people. You could even have a decent country with 40 million people. But with 220 million people, it’s tough enough to survive for 57 years.

Is Indonesia surviving? Considering its proximity it should be an overriding issue in Singapore. The two countries are intertwined more than most people realize. Orchard Road would be dead if Indonesians stopped coming. 

It would be nice to know if there is hope in Indonesia, and where to find it. The answer is simple: look at her people. The very people who evoke images of huddled masses, violent riots and undisciplined laborers, are also the source of some of the finest and most enlightened democrats and pluralists in the world.

US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz once remarked that there are more Muslims in the world speaking Indonesian than there are speaking Arabic. Last May I was in New York and Washington DC watching former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid address various audiences, most notably the annual conference of the high-powered American Jewish Committee alongside US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. The message was that hope for containment of Islam radicalism lies in the moderate Muslims of Indonesia. The Muslim majority in Indonesia has consistently opposed abuse of religion by hard-line elements. 

They have defended the Chinese ethnic minority who have long been the objects of persecution and discrimination. The presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid gave state recognition to the Chinese New Year, allowed Chinese-language newspapers and television broadcasts, and gave the Chinese freedom to use their original names. Sounds simple but it was not that way before. Ethnic pluralism and religious tolerance are major themes of the political transformation started in 1997. True, that transformation is jerky but ideas are now expressed without fear. The bad guys are still there, but newspapers point at them. Words like Aceh, Poso, Ambon strike fear into anybody living near Indonesia. But violence does not come from the people. In academic jargon, Indonesian violence is of the vertical kind, stage-managed. The activists of the civil society loudly oppose violence and corruption. Unfortunately almost none are known to the Singaporean public. Not many know that Xanana Gusmao, now President of Timor Leste, was represented throughout his captivity in Jakarta by a human rights activist named Hendardi. Nobody here has heard of Munir, a young lawyer who exposed the kidnapping of democratic activists in 1997. Teten Masduki with his Indonesian Corruption Watch made household words of major corruption scandals. Female leaders like Dita Indah Sari, Karlina Leksono and Wardah Hafidz fight society’s tough battles with high intelligence and commitment. We could fill up this column with names and names of people who are quietly holding the nation together with hope, integrity and social activism. They are not only activists but professionals, government officials and young military officers. For every bad stereotype there are many more good people.

Yes, Indonesia is a broken nation. Its tarnished image is well deserved by the misdirected elites in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. But a nation is nothing if not her people, and the Indonesian people are emerging to claim the nation’s future. In the words of Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, they are Stayers, not Quitters.